'twas the night before christmas...

'twas the night before christmas and all through the house, 

the creatures are stirring, especially my spouse.

the stockings are in storage but were boxed with care, 

i hope that st nicholas won't stop there.

the baby is nestled all snug in her bed, 

i wonder if visions of new toys and books dance in her head.

santa and his reindeer are on their way,

when he finally arrives, we'll yell hip-hip-hooray!

there are cookies and cupcakes, hope mr nicholas takes a bite,

happy christmas to all...and to all a good night!

diy cake (or any other food) stand

presentation is everything and food always tastes better when it's served on something pretty!  

i love vintage cake/dessert/whatever stands, especially in milk glass.  luckily, i've never purchased any for fear that it will fuel my desire to start a collection.  a few months ago, i came across some cute dessert stands made from repurposed kitchen items and thought, what an easy and brilliant idea...and decided to make some myself.  presenting...the diy cake (or dessert, food, flowers, whatever) stand! 

this is my holiday set!  i found some awesome vintage christmas plates made in England by Strode at a thrift shop for only $1 a piece (most of the ones on ebay are $10/plate)...score!  i also purchased the cute glass cups for $1 a piece as well.  i used epoxy to glue the cups (upside-down so there's more surface area to glue and support the plate) to the plates and let sit for 24 hours.  sooooo easy, sooooo cheap and sooooo cute!  

the prettier the details on the plates and cups, the prettier your stand will be!  you can make this using any cup or vase for the base (wider is probably better for stability) and any plate or bowl for the top surface.  i used epoxy to glue the cups and plates but there are probably other variations on the web.  i personally love epoxy because it works like super glue on 'roids.  just remember to use it in a well-ventilated area.  i think its toxicity dissipates after it hardens.

sara, i think this project is calling your name.  a huge christmas bowl on a chic fluted wine glass is an awesome way to serve your peppermint popcorn!  

save vernazza

in 2009, the hubs and i visited one of the most beautiful places in the world...italy's cinque terra!  here we are standing on the hiking trail to monterosso, overlooking the beautiful city of vernazza!  

 

on october 25, 2011, the towns of monterosso and vernazza were heavily damaged by unusual heavy rains and flash flooding, with some areas buried in mud/debris up to 12 feet deep!  three lives were lost, residents were forced to evacuate, and the town continues to be in a state of emergency :(

below are some before and after photos.  it's so hard to fathom the destruction, especially to vernazza's main piazza (city square), an area usually filled with hundreds of residents and tourists.

all photos above from savevernazza.com

i watch the news regularly and had no idea that this happened until i received an email from the savevernazza.com group recently.  i don't think that this tragedy was heavily reported in the news :(

my heart aches as i look at the devastation but i am so happy that the people of vernazza are hopeful and determined to rebuild their beautiful little town to its original glory and plan to welcome visitors back as early as the summer of 2012.  if you or anyone you know has a special place in your heart for italy, especially the cinque terra, please consider donating something to help save vernazza :)

gag-alicious (aka invisalign impressions)

if you're eating breakfast or lunch right now, i'm sorry if these pictures just made you lose your appetite (or barf?!)!

top left - open wide for exterior teeth photos
top middle - holding the huge ass tray (for FIVE minutes) to take my upper impression
top right - open wide for pictures of the inside of my mouth
bottom - bite impression & upper and lower impressions from the nasty orange goop

soooooo...i finally completed my one year of invisalign (in addition to the 8 months i did pre-prego) and was ready to pop the bubbly when i realized that i had a little gap between two of my lower teeth & one of my uppers didn't rotate completely.  gah!!! my dentist gave me the option of doing a refinement based on photos only or take another set of impressions to get an accurate assessment of where my teeth are presently.  

i really, really, really, really, really didn't want to take another set of impressions but knowing that it would give me the best result, i ended up doing it.  and just like the other two times, i gagged like craaazzzzy during the process.  the goop tastes horrible and the tray that holds the goop is sooooo big that it makes me gag to the point where i'm about to barf and my eyes get all watery!  yes, a tad bit embarrassing.  but it's done and this is the last time i'm going to do this...ever!

minus the horrible 10 minutes to take the impressions and all the hands and fingers in and around your mouth during the photos, invisalign is the best thing ever :)  the things we do for vanity.  

T minus 11

holy moly.  there are less than 11 days until santa comes to town and...  

• i still need to unpack the last of the boxes and put stuff away.
• i have random christmas decorations scattered throughout the condo.  i don't know if santa will be able to maneuver himself amongst the mess.  
• every time i clear a surface, something else ends up landing on it.  it's a vicious cycle and it's driving me nuts!  
• i haven't started my shopping yet.  

it's so crazy how christmas can sneak up on you so quickly.  time to hit amazon...ta-ta for now!

sunset from the hotel

one of the greatest perks of living at the hotel is the totally unobstructed view of the ocean which makes for some incredible sunsets!  this is what we see every night along with all the boats and catamarans going out for sunset cruises.  i've never seen the sun so defined as it gently fades away to make room for the city lights!  it's quite spectacular...but i still very much miss our old house and living on the ground.  heheh.

the magic

the tiramisu played with her first glow sticks at the parade!
she saw another kid playing with them and wanted some so i had to give in :)  

one of the best things about having children is the opportunity to create magic for them!  the tiramisu is a bit too young to understand and believe in santa but the christmas traditions have already started for her :)  this year, i took her to the city lights parade and tree lighting ceremony.  it was my first time attending the event in the 24 years that i've lived here!

i had absolutely no idea how many people would be there!  honolulu hale is within walking distance from our condo so at least we didn't have to worry about parking. but we did have to fight amongst the throngs of people/strollers/wheelchairs/scooters to get a good view of the festivities.  people must camp out hours prior to guard their spots...and many of them save "seats" for others.  it was craaazzzzy.  luckily, a family in front of us made some space so i could squeeze the stroller up front so the baby could see what was going on...even if it was 20 minutes after we were standing behind them :)

if you missed the parade, here's a short video clip.  the majority of the parade wasn't as lively as i had anticipated it to be (it definitely wasn't the disney electric lights parade) but it was okay.  the baby wasn't overjoyed but the lights and sounds definitely kept her interest.  the dog, on the other hand, was so scared that she jumped out of the stroller and trembled the entire time we were there!  good thing my parents came with me and took turns holding the dog.  sometimes, she's more of a baby than the human baby!

pictures with santa

the line was looooong, the weather was hot, dogs were barking and peeing everywhere, daddy was sweating through his shirt, the tiramisu was hungry and fussy, and jasmyn's personal space was often invaded while sitting patiently in the stroller. but mama insisted that we wait in line to take our 2nd annual santa paws family photo.  

i had no idea that the tiramisu was  harassing jasmyn during most of the session until we got home and looked at the photos.  no wonder jasmyn was wiggling around so much and wanted to get down.  we couldn't get a grooming appointment last week so her hair is kinda messy.  i love the tiramisu's different looks, especially her wicked stare at all the strangers trying to get attention.  mommy and daddy need to practice keeping their eyes open.  the drool on daddy's shoulder is kinda funny.

we tried to get a picture of just the kiddies with santa but the baby wasn't going to have any of it.  she started crying and thrusting her body away so that was that.

*sigh*  better luck next year.  heehehe.

it's beginning to look (and feel) a lot like christmas

it's 1:29 am and the moment is sweet.  everyone's asleep (including the dog, who happens to be laying on my side of the bed) and i'm sitting in the living room alone, gazing at our purdy tree amongst all the city lights, smelling the lovely pine scent emanating off of it and listening to christmas songs on our little bose system.  i loooove the holidays!

don't let jasmyn's looks fool you.  she is thrilled to be modeling in front of the tree.

after 3-1/2 days of chaos, our tree finally made it home!  on friday afternoon, i headed to ala moana to make sure my tree was still there (given all my flocked up tree luck) and ready to make the short trek to its new home.  i found my favorite salesperson and he prepped the tree for delivery by wrapping it up in plastic, making a fresh cut on the trunk and changing the tree stand to the one i provided.  the tree was then delivered to our condo and i haven't stopped looking or smelling it since!  i just adore flocked noble firs :)  they are the prettiest trees ever and only require a nice string of warm lights to look divine.  if i had my way, a noble fir would be a permanent design fixture in our home all year long!

home at last

our gorgeous tree is finally home!  hooray!!!  more details to follow :)

flocked up christmas tree - part deux

omg omg omg.  after yesterday's fiasco, i went to pick up my christmas tree this evening and came home with this...an empty christmas tree stand!!!

apparently, there was some miscommunication or lack of any communication which resulted in a christmas tree that looked 99% the same as i saw it yesterday except for some extra flocking on the top of the tree.  i nearly had a cow but kept my composure because after all, 'tis the season to be jolly.  i asked the dude what the flock happened and he said that he was only given instructions to add snow to the top of the tree.  omg!  i had a nice chat with the owner about the flocking disgrace and he quickly instructed his guys to move the tree to the the flocking booth immediately and allowed me to watch them flock it to my satisfaction with my own eyes.  

so now my tree is spending another sad night in the parking lot of ala moana while it dries.  i'll be taking a jaunt down to the mall tomorrow to make sure my lovely tree is still there and is loaded up safely before they deliver it as a courtesy after two days of mess-ups!  gaaaahhhhhh.

every wonder how they flock a tree?  here's a short video that i shot tonight. my first blogger video.  whooohooo!

view from the hotel

this picture isn't the best (click the photo for an enlarged version) but this is the pretty ocean view we look out to from our living room.  our unit has floor to ceiling glass windows on three walls and it took some getting used to but it definitely makes the space feel more open!  the sunsets are pretty spectacular as well but my favorite is the view at night...tons of scattered lights all over the city from diamond head to ewa beach and beyond!  kinda reminds me of my favorite city...the city of lights :)

crap, they flocked up my tree!

left - trimming the trunk before drilling the hole for the stand;
center - our tree, tagged and waiting for flocking;
right - our flocked up tree

a new container of christmas trees was finally delivered to christmas hawaii yesterday and i got early pickings!  i was looking for a relatively slim and nicely-shaped 7-foot noble fir and i found one!  it was soooooo fresh that the trunk was still icy cold!

i was so excited to pick it up tonight but they flocked up (hahah) my order so i have to go back tomorrow to pick it up :(  i wanted "medium flocking" on the entire tree but they only "lightly flocked the tips" as shown in the photo above :(  the flocking takes a day to dry so i have to go back tomorrow to pick up my tree :( at least it gives me one more day to clean before the tree arrives!

ps - only 25 days until christmas!  

feeling thankful at the hotel

hello there!  hope you had a fabulous thanksgiving filled with lotsa food, fun and family!  we had a wonderful feast (diet starts tomorrow) and the tiramisu enjoyed her first real thanksgiving meal of turkey, stuffing, yams and her ultimate favorite...cranberry sauce!  she's developing quite a palate and pretty much loves food in general, especially fruits and veggies.  that's my girl.

we've been living in our new home, "the hotel," for just over two weeks now.  i fondly call it "the hotel" because it totally feels like one beginning with the fancy water fountains in the porte cochere, immaculate lobby, quiet hallways, taking an elevator to our unit high in the sky, and the fact that there's hardly any ceiling lighting in the unit (money-saving measure on the part of the building contractor) so the unit is kinda dark if we don't turn on all the torchere lamps we ended up purchasing.  i'm still working on accepting the design limitations (challenges?) we have here.  i have all my oil paintings that i want to hang but we only have a few drywall walls so the artwork isn't evenly distributed in the house.  and our furniture layout isn't optimal. and all our walls are off-white.  i have to consciously remind myself that this is temporary and before we know it, we'll be moving again to our new home!  on the plus side, we have a KILLER view (will post pics later this week) and more space than we would be able to get anywhere else in a condo.  and the walkability factor rocks! we are so close to aloha tower, ward center, and ala moana and have been walking everywhere with the kiddies. 

i just looooove this time of the year!  i've been listening to christmas music for a few weeks now and am so happy that the weather has gotten so much colder around here! i've been on the hunt for the perfect noble fir christmas tree and am hoping it arrives in tomorrow's container at Richard Tajiri's Christmas Hawaii lot.  

more tomorrow...ta-ta for now!

70% moved

sorry for the blog absence but i've been overly consumed with packing, moving and unpacking...and frankly, this #(*# is making me bananas.  i'm soooo exhausted and can't wait to go back to a life with less chaos and less clutter!

half of my sectional in its temporary home on the top shelf of the warehouse

the movers came on friday to pick up all the large furniture and deliver it to the new condo.  our moving day just happened to coincide with apec and luckily, we didn't get stuck in any traffic.  anywho, trying to squeeze allllll of our furniture into a space less than half of what we previously had has proved to be a quite a challenge.  i measured everything and made a cute little floor plan...but everything was thrown out the window when half of my sectional wouldn't fit in the elevator (reason #328,231 why condo living sucks donkey balls).  so, we had to pay the movers to take it to storage...except that it wouldn't easily fit through the door/hallway to our second floor storage area...so it's presently sitting high in the sky on a pallet in the warehouse instead.  but, the other part of the sectional is in the condo and let me tell you, it looks extremely lame without it's partner so we'll be taking this piece to storage as well.  yes, a major p.i.t.a.

our new home looks like a tornado hit with boxes and stuff everywhere.  there just isn't time to put things away right now as our main focus is to just get everything out of our house so we can hand over the keys at the end of the week.  we have a few more rooms to go and the garage.  and because we're in a rush, the hubby is pretty much randomly throwing all of our to-be-stored-items into the storage rooms so after we move out and organize our new home, we'll have to organize our storage >.<  it's a vicious cycle and makes me wanna burn all of our belongings already.  i hope that living in a smaller space will force us to get rid of more stuff!!!  

don't laugh but i even managed to pack and move this lovely collection of 26 colorful gelato spoons, 15 roasted chestnut openers and 33 plastic food containers...and then tonight, i put everything in the plastic recycling bin in the building.  yes, i have issues.  

harajuku mochi chocolat

oh-mi-gosh!  pardon me for the extended blog absence!  i've been so exhausted from running around moving, managing the renovations for the new condo, and taking care of some other little surprises ;)

anywho, one of my FFF's (Favorite Friends over Fifty) is in town...uncle bob!  uncle bob is the best -- he always brings me goodies when he's in town.  hehe.  this trip's treat is Harajuku Mochi Chocolat and they're sooooo yummy.  i think he said that there's only one store outside of Japan where you can purchase it and luckily, it's in San Francisco, where he lives!  he gave me a box of strawberry chocolate and chocolate chocolate.  they are both soooo delightful!  i hope i don't eat them all before the weekend's done.  hahaha.

happy halloweenie!

it's only 1015 pm but i'm soooo tired so this post will be short and super boring.  hope you had a happy halloween!  the tiramisu had a lot of fun and surprisingly, kept her costume on all night.  more later.  tomorrow is november 1 and the holidays are officially here!  more later.  the girl from craigslist showed up and took everything this morning.  yay!

gotta love craigslist

i posted an ad on craigslist late last night for some free furniture (bedroom set, tv, tv stand, lamps, night stands) that was left in the condo that we purchased.  within 10 minutes, i had 10 emails.  when i woke up, there were over 30 messages and i quickly removed the ad before my email exploded.

apparently, there is a lot of interest in free stuff.  i tried to be diplomatic and reply in the order that they responded.  very few people answered the phone when i called so i basically gave it to the first person who i actually spoke to who was willing to pick up all the stuff tomorrow morning.  i hope they show up!

anywho, here are some of the responses i received via email, only edited to remove phone number and name.  enjoy.

Hi:) im intrested in the free stuffs. But I dont get it, sorry. But please give me a call @ (808) xxx-xxxx thank you:)


Me please? <smile> Really could use some furniture!


Hi my name is xxx and im interested in your fdes items. I can be reached at xxxxxxx


im intrested in the bedroom set pleaswe call me at 808xxxxxxx my name is xxx


Hello,

I am interested in picking up the white side table and lamp and anything that is white.  My number is xxx-xxxx.
I can pick up anytime on the day you want me to,  but if it is first come first serve then I would pass.  I do not believe in racing with another person to get an item.
When i sell or give something away I would hold it for the first person who contacts me just out of respect.  If they do not pick it up by the toilet frame given to me then i will let the first person that contacted me have it by the time frame given to me.
Anyway please let me know. 

Ty,
xxxx

im intrested phone xxx-xxxx

HELLO IF NOONE HAS REPLIED YET I COULD PICK UP ALL THOSE THINGS JUST GIVE ME A CALL @ xxxxxxx MY NAME IS xxx MY BABYZ DAD NEEDS THESE THINGS TO SET UP HIS ROOM SO WHEN OUR DAUGHTER GOES OVER TO HIS HOUSE THEY HAVE A PLACE TO PUT BOTH THERE THINGS IT WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED...

hi,my name is xxx,i would love to have your bedroom set.i do need it please call me @xxx-xxxx.i can pick it up any time you like.thank you for your ti me and kindness.aloha. 

I will love to pick them up..my number iis xxxxxxx

i heart cmas music

there are only 58 more days until christmas and i've already started playing cmas music!  i love cmas music and actually listen to it all year round when i'm in the office because it always makes me happy!  

ps - if you wanna know how many more days until christmas, go here!

pianos are good investments

downsizing (albeit temporarily) definitely has its limitations.  although no one in our family plays the piano, we own a cute ebony baby grand.  yes, don't ask.  

anywho, so we've been asking ourselves, what the $(!(# are we going to do with the piano?!

a - take it to the condo

b - put it in storage at $75/month

c - sell it

d - find someone who will let us store it at their house for $free.99

we eliminated option a because of the space constraints.  option b seemed semi-reasonable if all other options failed.  i looked into option c and was told that if we were planning to purchase another baby grand (which we were), we should keep the one we have because it will cost us almost double the price of what we paid in 2007 to purchase another one in 1 or 2 years!!!  who the heck knew that the price of pianos inflated so much?!  

i ahem...we decided to keep the piano and luckily, the father-in-law was happy to house it temporarily!  and he's even planning to take piano lessons!  hahaha.  how funny.  so the piano was moved yesterday...and just in case you're wondering, it takes four guys and a lot of skill to move one.  and every time we move it, it costs $225 :( someone in our family better learn to play that damn thing soon.  hopefully the tiramisu will.

uss hawaii

the hubby and i had an amazing opportunity to tour the USS Hawaii (SSN 76), a nuclear-powered fast attack submarine, that is actually commissioned and used for war!  the sub is currently docked for repairs and maintenance in Pearl Harbor and we were invited to tour it via our Navy League membership.

we were shuttled to the pier at Pearl Harbor and then briefed on the sub's capabilities by Commander Mack.

and then we had to CLIMB into the submarine through a pretty narrow opening. climbing in was definitely more difficult than climbing out...and required a bit of coordination.  i held on tight and climbed slowly and luckily, didn't slip or fall :)

inside the sub was fascinating!  this is the escape hatch that is used in case of emergencies.  you climb into this room that fills with water, pressurizes and you swim out...up to a depth of 600 ft! 

here's the control room with SECRET classified computers.  never fear, everything was de-classified prior to us entering and we were allowed to take as many photos as we wanted ;)  apparently, it's very difficult to land a job on the sub and the submariners study all day and all night.  and all the studying needs to be conducted on the sub because everything is classified info and nothing, including notes, can be taken outside of the sub.  that computer screen below shows the sub's location anywhere in the world and the depth of water surrounding it.

we toured the torpedo room, which was actually loaded with actual war torpedos ("war shots")!  each torpedo costs approximately $450,000 and is basically a mini-submarine with a computer.  they're computer programmed to reach it's target and are smart enough to figure out how to get around obstructions, etc.  or at least that's what i think i heard.  hehe.  the entire torpedo room is hydraulically controlled to move and maneuver the torpedos for loading.  very cool.

when the sub is deployed, it carries a crew of approximately 130 submariners.  the confines are tight and most of the men sleep in these tiny sleeping quarters approximately 6'-4" long and about 18" high.  talk about claustrophobic!  i feel sorry for the really tall guys...not sure how they manage to sleep in these little sardine cans.

as the sub becomes the home of the crew, there are provisions for laundry (one washer and dryer for the entire submarine) and of course, meals available 24/7 through the kitchen.  this is the sub's cook...he does ALL the prep and cooking for all 130 men by himself.  today's lunch was hamburger macaroni, deep fried shrimp, soup (?) and cake for dessert.  there was some pizza dough rising in the back, which is what the cook was preparing for dinner.  the "mess" area was pretty cute...almost felt like a little diner and was even equipped with a tv.

these pictures don't do justice for the awesomeness that we witnessed today!  much thanks to all the young men* who serve our country!  sooo glad we went on this little saturday morning field trip!  can't wait for the next cool thing we are invited to -- there's supposed to be an overnight field trip on a plane or ship that actually goes to a destination.  neato!

*there are currently no women on the subs but that all changes next year, when the navy accepts their first female officers!

slowly but surely

this is probably not the most efficient way of moving but we have been taking one car load a day of "small-stuff-that-is-not-essential-for-daily-living-but-not-going-into-storage" to our new condo.  luckily, the condo provides shopping carts (that say Safeway) that you can use to move stuff from the parking garage to your unit, which really speeds things up! 

the plan for the weekend is to start  packing up stuff that's going into storage and decide what i'm going to sell :(  we purged a lot two years ago before we moved here and now it's time to purge again.  i will evaluate each item separately and anything i truly don't love or doesn't serve me will be sold :(  sooo sad but it will feel nice to have less stuff :)  we'll see if i can let go.  hah.

it's gettin', it's gettin', it's gettin' kinda hectic...

it's pretty much all but official that we're headed into condo living for the next 1-1/2 to 2 years.  we signed the lease for our rental  last week and just moved all my beloved oil paintings over tonight.  the walls in our current home feel so bare :(

this morning, we're headed to escrow to sign for the unit that we are purchasing for my parents.  we'll get the keys on monday when we close and then the contractor will come in to change out the carpet to wood floors and then my parents can start moving in.

it's definitely going to take some getting used to but i think it will be okay.  at least we won't have to evacuate for any tsunami warnings and we'll get an awesome view of any water movement if/when another one heads our way...and we'll have the BEST fireworks view for 4th of july and new years!

more later.

japa-talian

this weekend, the hubby and i had a date night at the new Happy Valley Pasta & Pizza.  

left - sampler appetizer (garlic fries, fried calamari, sausage and chicken karaage)
middle - my seafood risotto without arborio rice
right - the hubby's action shot meat pizza

the food was aight...it's japa-talian food (btw, i made that word up).  my seafood risotto was made from normal rice rather traditional arborio rice :(  the pizza pies come out whole and you get to cut the slices yourself, which was a nice touch.  i liked their pizza crust but the menu is super limited and we prefer more traditional italian food so we probably won't ever go back.


*   *   *

holy smokes, we're already in the second half of october!  halloween is just around the corner and i still haven't purchased or made a costume for the little tiramisu.  i have to be creative about her costume since she definitely knows what she likes and doesn't like nowadays and she's much more averse to hats and headwear unless she approves of it!  

the $6 fortune teller

i'm not one for fortune tellers but i love me a good fortune cookie, especially those coated in dark chocolate!  this was tonight's fortune from the famous gourmet restaurant, panda express ;)  it didn't come with chocolate but it was still yummy. btw - did you know that panda express does not use msg in their food?  

4 years ago today...

the hubby and i exchanged wedding vows in santorini.  it was just the two of us...no family...no friends...and it was sooooo beautiful and stress-free.  we rode donkeys through the village, accompanied by musicians playing traditional greek wedding music.  it was spectacular and we wouldn't have had it any other way!  

top L - complimentary champagne; top R - fried calimari
bottom L - my ribeye; bottom R - complimentary dessert (choco cupcakes)

tonight, we celebrated last minute (of course, the hubby didn't even know that it was our anniversary) with a dinner at ruths chris and guess what?  i ate A LOT OF MEAT!  a nice juicy ribeye and it tasted pretty good hehe.  AND, i  even consumed an adult beverage (complimentary champagne haha) for the first time in over two years!!!

(i actually had a few tablespoons of beef last week and some yesterday.  luckily, my stomach wasn't affected after not eating meat for 7 months.  i think i've replenished my iron stores for a few months...going back to vegetarianism tomorrow...i think.)

operation condo clean out - part 2

this picture pretty much sums up my 3-day weekend.  (btw - i found this toy figurine amongst the loads of junk in the condo.  anyone want it?)

the hubby says i look just like this girl but i don't mind
because really, i was *that* annoyed with cleaning...again.

it was beautiful out and we spent most of the weekend cleaning more crap (literally) out of the condo.  like i mentioned before, the geckos pretty much took over the unit and deemed it their private toilet.  i tried to vacuum up as much of the gecko crap i could with the little handheld vacuum that we had in the unit as there's no way i was going to use our regular vacuum.  and i don't know how i got stuck with this job when the majority of the crap in this condo belonged to the hubby.  needless to say, i wasn't a happy camper.

piles of gecko crap EVERYWHERE...with a close-up just so you can witness the level of disgust.

  

we finally got to the big stuff in the condo like the 27" boob tube and an old tube monitor.  we called goodwill to see if they would take them to which they said yes. when the hubby went to drop it off, the donation drop-off guy said that they've never taken tvs or monitors.  the hubby was not amused.  i went to opala.org, which incidentally is a very informative website, and discovered that you can recycle tvs and monitors at best buy!  so we loaded everything onto a cart, pushed it into the store, and the customer service guy greeted us with, "what museum did you pull that out of?"  very funny.  anywho, they charged a $10 recycling fee per monitor/tv but you get an instant $10 best buy gift certificate in exchange, which is nice.  considering that it's so hard to find someone who will take old electronics, best buy's recycling service is awesome.

waiting in line at best buy and walking out with two $10 best buy gift cards.

we had a queen-sized bedroom set that one of the hubby's friends wanted so i disassembled the bed frame and cleaned the nightstands and dresser.  we pulled the mattress outside on sunday afternoon for bulky item pick up on monday...but it was taken within 15 minutes!  and then on monday (yesterday) morning, it re-appeared on the curb. $*#!(  and then 30 minutes later, it was gone again!  hopefully, the second taker decided to keep it or disposed of it properly!!!

i wanted to make a full living room set outside on the curb and take a photo
but people kept taking stuff as we brought it outside!  

we also put out a leather couch, three small wooden tables, a tv stand, a tea table, an air compressor, two shelving systems, and a light and everything was pretty much taken literally within minutes by people in the neighborhood driving by and enticed by the "free" signs.  as the hubby was bringing out my old desk, one of the neighbors in the building asked if he could have it and took it right into his unit.   i was a bit shocked at how quickly people take free stuff...but am glad that someone can use the stuff and it's definitely better than it ending up in a landfill.  

so that's my exciting weekend.  hope yours was just as fun!  remember to practice the 3R's...reduce, reuse, and recycle...so this crazy scenario doesn't ever happen to you!

shreddin' aint easy

left - my wagon carrying 40 lbs of paper to be shredded
right - the poor lady who had to manually shred all 40 lbs of paper...but i honestly think it was more painful for me, having to sit and watch her shred all 40 lbs

my shredding pile was getting out of hand so i finally decided to do something about it today.  i normally take my stuff to the shred-ex truck which charges $5/box and is capable of shredding the entire box in a minute or less.  i'm not even kidding!  shred-ex has the craziest, industrial shredder known to mankind.  the thing sounds like an airplane and you dump the entire box into the the huge opening and it devours the paper in seconds. 

shred-ex is closed on the weekends but i was determined to get my stuff shredded TODAY so i called office max and office depot to see what they offered.  office max shreds for 79 cents/lb but the paper is dumped into a locked bin and then the shredding company comes on site weekly to shred whatever is in the bin.  office depot shreds for 99 cents/lb and it's done in-house while you watch and wait.  given my paranoid tendencies, i took my stuff to office depot.

my entire paper load filled up a shopping wagon and weighed 40 lbs!  i couldn't believe it.  i started getting cold feet about using their services when i realized they were about to charge me 4x what shred-ex would charge.  but i thought, i'm already here...just get it done.  and then the woman proceeded to shred my stuff...MANUALLY feeding the sheets into a machine that is basically an oversized version of the shredder i have at home.  it only accepted 10 sheets or less at a time!  i started freaking out.  i asked her how long it would take to which she said, "about 20 minutes."  it ended up taking over 45 FREAKIN MINUTES.  (i was actually timing how long it would take on my iphone but then my phone mysteriously died and i couldn't turn it back on*)

what a painful test of patience!  i will never stray from shred-ex again, even if it means driving around the island to find their shredding truck.  at least i got the lady to price match office max so i saved $8...and can now buy 4 double scoop cones at pillbox :)

* if you own an iphone and it suddenly shuts off, screen turns black and you can't get it to turn on again...hold the power and home buttons simultaneously for 10 seconds and then let go.  voila!  your phone should turn back on.  thank you google!!!

3-day weekend

it's a 3-day weekend and while i'm happy that it gives us time to finish up our condo cleaning, i'm sad that we're not traveling this month!  2010 BC (before children), october was our international traveling month.  paris is in the 60s now and perfect temperature to bundle up, walk and eat all day long, but not sweat an ounce! hopefully, we'll be able to take our first international trip (and first trip ever) with the tiramisu next spring!

happy columbus day! 

waste not, want not

it's disgusting thinking about how much money is wasted on crap that doesn't serve us...or served us for for a short period of time and now just takes up space in the house.  today, we donated 20 garbage bags full of clothes and household goods (including a brand new, still in sealed box, santa costume) to the kidney foundation. the retail value of the donated stuff was easily over a thousand dollars...probably even two thousand dollars.  

i placed the stuff outside the gate early this morning and later saw one of my neighbor's maintenance guys pilfering through our stuff.  what the hell.  i told him that the stuff belonged to us and we are donating it.  i don't know if he understood me but he eventually walked away.  next time, i'm putting the bags inside the gate and will have the driver ring the doorbell!

anywho...waste not, want not.  that's my new motto.  i'm going to think long and hard before purchasing anything from this point on.  there's nothing i really *need* these days other than food and water :)  oh, and a little bit of bling ;)

*  *  *

btw - the kidney foundation picked up everything except the humungous bunch of curly willow.  i'm guessing the driver thought it was landscaping rubbish and not expensive home decor.  haha.  i called goodwill and they said they would take it so i'll be dropping this off tomorrow.